Election Countdown 2012: Dream Defenders, College Based Activist Group, Arrested for Unlawful Assembly, and More

This week in the Election Countdown: Florida has the highest percentage of home loans in foreclosure in the country; 50,000 Iowa families will have less help paying for groceries after the federal government changes the food assistance program; 49% say Romney is more empathetic with ongoing economic woes while 45% say Obama is more in tune; TransCanada is planning to circumvent its original easement contract; and More.

Mission elapsed time: T + 47 and counting*

For mine own good,All causes shall give way: I am in bloodStepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more,Returning were as tedious as go o’er. –William Shakespeare, MacBeth

IA. Food: “About 50,000 IA families will have less help paying for groceries come Nov. 1, after the federal government changed how they calculate the food assistance program, or food stamps.” … Permitting: “Supervisors voted 4-1 to send a letter to recommend the Department of Natural Resources turn down Ditch’s application for a 5,661-hog confinement. The supervisors’ letter carries no weight with the DNR unless they also take points off Ditch’s ‘master matrix,’ scoring his application. If the county sends a passing score to the DNR, the agency is prohibited under state law from further review of the matrix.” Home rule?

UT. Thugs: “Great Old Broads for Wilderness, and it is primarily composed of “old and gray” women. Its mission is to encourage elders to advocate on behalf of the environment–in particular, our public lands–and to hike on them whenever possible. Because of their advocacy for wilderness, greater protection for public lands and closing unauthorized all-terrain vehicle trails, the Broads have become controversial in some rural western areas. On Sunday morning a member of the group found the exit gate padlocked shut and an old-hag Halloween mask, doused in fake blood, hanging in effigy. Underneath the mask was a milk jug with the inked threat: “Stay out of San Juan County. No last chance.” Nice!

Grand Bargain™-brand Catfood Watch. Interview: “Initially, the White House had asked that the conversation [with the Des Moines Register] be considered off-the-record and its details not shared with readers. … Interview: “[OBAMA:] I am absolutely confident that we can get what is the equivalent of the grand bargain that essentially I’ve been offering to the Republicans for a very long time, which is $2.50 worth of cuts for every dollar in spending, and work to reduce the costs of our health care programs. And we can easily meet — “easily” is the wrong word — we can credibly [to whom?] meet the target that the Bowles-Simpson Commission established of $4 trillion in deficit reduction, and even more in the out-years, and we can stabilize our deficit-to-GDP ratio in a way that is really going to be a good foundation for long-term growth [yeah, like FDR in 1937]. Now, once we get that done, that takes a huge piece of business off the table.” … The deal (2011): “But the major elements of a bargain seemed to be falling into place: $1.2 trillion in agency cuts, smaller cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients, nearly $250 billion in Medicare savings achieved in part by raising the eligibility age. And $800 billion in new taxes” (via Digby). … Interview: “After paging it through it, one question is obvious:Why would the White House seek to suppress something so innocuous? It’s little more than boilerplate stump speech yada-yada-yada.” Well, only if throwing elders and the sick under the bus for the sake of arbitrary financial ratios that having nothing to do with the real economy is “innocuous.” … Betrayal: “Major labor unions and dozens of liberal groups working to elect Obama are worried he could ‘betray’ them in the lame-duck session by agreeing to a deal to cut safety-net programs. The liberal groups are planning to launch an aggressive campaign immediately after Election Day to pressure Obama and Senate Ds not to endorse any deal that cuts Medicare and/or Social Security benefits.” Typical liberals. Try for leverage only when you don’t have it. The gays and hispanics did better, earlier.

The Obama vs. The Romney III. Civil resistance: “The 15 young adults, part of a college-based group called the Dream Defenders were nonviolent, [and] arrested on charges of unlawful assembly. The group was formed in April after the Trayvon Martin killing. The organization’s biggest issue with both Obama and Romney is that neither has addressed the problem of young kids being ‘taken out of schools and put into criminal justice systems,’ said [Cecilia O'Brien, a Florida State University student] of the group, which has about 100 members. “Everyone definitely feels it was worth it. We feel like this issue is so serious that we’re all willing to put ourselves on the line for the issue.”

Election Countdown 2012: Dream Defenders, College Based Activist Group, Arrested for Unlawful Assembly, and More

This week in the Election Countdown: Florida has the highest percentage of home loans in foreclosure in the country; 50,000 Iowa families will have less help paying for groceries after the federal government changes the food assistance program; 49% say Romney is more empathetic with ongoing economic woes while 45% say Obama is more in tune; TransCanada is planning to circumvent its original easement contract; and More.

Mission elapsed time: T + 47 and counting*

For mine own good,All causes shall give way: I am in bloodStepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more,Returning were as tedious as go o’er. –William Shakespeare, MacBeth

IA. Food: “About 50,000 IA families will have less help paying for groceries come Nov. 1, after the federal government changed how they calculate the food assistance program, or food stamps.” … Permitting: “Supervisors voted 4-1 to send a letter to recommend the Department of Natural Resources turn down Ditch’s application for a 5,661-hog confinement. The supervisors’ letter carries no weight with the DNR unless they also take points off Ditch’s ‘master matrix,’ scoring his application. If the county sends a passing score to the DNR, the agency is prohibited under state law from further review of the matrix.” Home rule?

UT. Thugs: “Great Old Broads for Wilderness, and it is primarily composed of “old and gray” women. Its mission is to encourage elders to advocate on behalf of the environment–in particular, our public lands–and to hike on them whenever possible. Because of their advocacy for wilderness, greater protection for public lands and closing unauthorized all-terrain vehicle trails, the Broads have become controversial in some rural western areas. On Sunday morning a member of the group found the exit gate padlocked shut and an old-hag Halloween mask, doused in fake blood, hanging in effigy. Underneath the mask was a milk jug with the inked threat: “Stay out of San Juan County. No last chance.” Nice!

Grand Bargain™-brand Catfood Watch. Interview: “Initially, the White House had asked that the conversation [with the Des Moines Register] be considered off-the-record and its details not shared with readers. … Interview: “[OBAMA:] I am absolutely confident that we can get what is the equivalent of the grand bargain that essentially I’ve been offering to the Republicans for a very long time, which is $2.50 worth of cuts for every dollar in spending, and work to reduce the costs of our health care programs. And we can easily meet — “easily” is the wrong word — we can credibly [to whom?] meet the target that the Bowles-Simpson Commission established of $4 trillion in deficit reduction, and even more in the out-years, and we can stabilize our deficit-to-GDP ratio in a way that is really going to be a good foundation for long-term growth [yeah, like FDR in 1937]. Now, once we get that done, that takes a huge piece of business off the table.” … The deal (2011): “But the major elements of a bargain seemed to be falling into place: $1.2 trillion in agency cuts, smaller cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients, nearly $250 billion in Medicare savings achieved in part by raising the eligibility age. And $800 billion in new taxes” (via Digby). … Interview: “After paging it through it, one question is obvious:Why would the White House seek to suppress something so innocuous? It’s little more than boilerplate stump speech yada-yada-yada.” Well, only if throwing elders and the sick under the bus for the sake of arbitrary financial ratios that having nothing to do with the real economy is “innocuous.” … Betrayal: “Major labor unions and dozens of liberal groups working to elect Obama are worried he could ‘betray’ them in the lame-duck session by agreeing to a deal to cut safety-net programs. The liberal groups are planning to launch an aggressive campaign immediately after Election Day to pressure Obama and Senate Ds not to endorse any deal that cuts Medicare and/or Social Security benefits.” Typical liberals. Try for leverage only when you don’t have it. The gays and hispanics did better, earlier.

The Obama vs. The Romney III. Civil resistance: “The 15 young adults, part of a college-based group called the Dream Defenders were nonviolent, [and] arrested on charges of unlawful assembly. The group was formed in April after the Trayvon Martin killing. The organization’s biggest issue with both Obama and Romney is that neither has addressed the problem of young kids being ‘taken out of schools and put into criminal justice systems,’ said [Cecilia O'Brien, a Florida State University student] of the group, which has about 100 members. “Everyone definitely feels it was worth it. We feel like this issue is so serious that we’re all willing to put ourselves on the line for the issue.”